Kathleen Hawkins
Kathleen Jessie Hawkins (17 November 1883 - 31 August 1981) was a New Zealand poet, known affectionately in her community of Tauranga as “The Pioneer Poet”.‘Tauranga’s Pioneer Poet’, Mary Morrison, New Zealand Women’s Weekly, 6 October 1975. Life Hawkins, an only child, was born in Tewkesbury, England. The River Avon flowed through the bottom of her family's garden. She grew up and was educated in England. She married George Hawkins, a tea and rubber plantation manager in Ceylon. The couple corresponded after George read a poem by Kathleen, and their correspondence soon blossomed into romance. Hawkins left England to live with George in Ceylon, where they were married 2 years after their correspondence began. She lived on the plantation for 20 years and mixed with the Ceylonese. She later recalled this time as a happy and colourful period in her life. She had few problems communicating despite only knowing English, and said relations between Europeans and Ceylonese were friendly. The couple had 2 children: George Hawkins and Mary Gilmer (née Hawkins). In 1938, the couple retired to Tauranga in New Zealand. George made the lifestyle change away from the heat to a colder climate for health reasons. She lived in Tauranga for the remainder of her life, some 43 years. George died in 1953 at the age of 79. In Tauranga she established herself as a well known personality with interests in the theatre, writing and the arts. She was a member of The Elms Society. Hawkins died in 1981 at the age of 97. A note on her appeared in the Bay of Plenty Times. The NZ Biographies Index at the National Library of New Zealand also notes Hawkins. Writing Hawkins wrote verse from an early age. With her cousins, she produced private magazines and illustrated and published her early poetry in them. As a young woman, she continued publishing poems. During her life, Hawkins never used her poetry for personal gain. Each publication of her work was for a particular charity such as the New Zealand Crippled Children’s Society or (during World War II) the airplane fund and the prisoners’ parcels fund. The full list of her publications is not known, and New Zealand libraries hold only 4 titles by her. Published between 1939 and 1974, they are: The Elms, and other verses (1939, 1940, 1943, 1943 4th edition); The Pup, and other poems for parcels (c.1942); The Little Blue Horse, and other verses (1950); and The Elms, and other poems: A selection of writings by Tauranga’s Pioneer Poet (1974). Her best-known volume, The Elms, and other verses (covering historical pioneer subjects), ran into several editions or reprints. Hawkins was specially interested in the earliest missionaries who came to Tauranga, and in the Land Wars with their loss of life on both sides. Bagnall describes The Pup as ‘Patriotic verses based on wartime incidents’. In the 1974 edition of The Elms, and other poems, the list of ‘Other Publications’ shows a further 3 titles by Hawkins: The Wind in the Rafters, Songs to Buy Wines and Three Flowers for Christmas. Her children printed The Elms, and other poems as Hawkins’s 91st birthday present. Its centerpiece was believed to be the earliest illustrated poem of the author, written at 15 years. New Zealand poet William E. Morris (founder fellow of the International Poetry Society) wrote the foreword to the 1974 edition of The Elms. Morris praised ‘her tremendous ability as a poet’ and noted further that: ‘Tauranga, and New Zealand, can now savour the best of her work. . . Her poems will have carved a niche for themselves in the literature of this country for in her lifetime she has written the poetry of today, simple, direct, but always saying something worthwhile.’Foreword, William E Morris, The Elms, and 0ther Poems: A selection of writings by Tauranga’s Pioneer Poet (Tauranga: Bay of Plenty Times, 1974). Recognition Hawkins's poetry is included and noted in historical publications such as Stanley Bull’s Historic Gate Pa, 29th April, 1864: Pukehinahina (1968) and The Historic Bay of Plenty: Te Papa C.M.S. Mission Station, 1838-1883 (1984) or the journal article ‘Wharekahu CMS Mission Station, Maketu’ by A. H. Matheson in the Whakatane & District Historical Society journal Historical Review, May 2003; vol.51 no.1: p. 18-29. Other poems of hers also appeared in this journal. In 2007, Hawkins had a poem included by New Zealand poet and anthologist Harvey McQueen in The Earth’s Deep Breathing: Garden poems by New Zealand poets. Publications *''The Elms, and other verses''. Tauranga, NZ: Times Printing, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1943. *''The Pup, and other poems for parcels''. 1942?The pup and other poems for parcels / by Kathleen Hawkins, Trove, National Library of Australia. Web, Apr. 14, 2014. *''Songs to Buy Wings''. Tauranga, NZ: 1947? *''The Little Blue Horse, and other verses''. Tauranga, NZ: Bay of Plenty Times, 1950. *''Garden Rhymes''. Tauranga, NZ: privately printed, 1957. *''The Wind in the Rafters''. Tauranga, NZ: privately printed, 19--? *''The Elms, and other poems: A selection of writings by Tauranga's Pioneer Poet''. Tauranga, NZ: Bay of Plenty Times, 1974. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Kathleen Hawkins, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Apr. 14, 2014. See also *List of New Zealand poets References External links ;Poems *"Ode to a Catalogue" Category:1883 births Category:1981 deaths Category:New Zealand women poets Category:People from Tewkesbury Category:People of British Ceylon Category:20th-century poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:English-language poets Category:New Zealand poets Category:New Zealand women writers Category:Poets Category:Women poets